Bangladeshi war hero to live in Rashtrapati Bhavan from Saturday

New Delhi, Feb 17 (IANS) Bangladeshi war hero and prominent painter Shahabuddin Ahmed will stay in Rashtrapati Bhavan as “in-residence” artist for five-days from Saturday to display his selected works for public viewing.

Settled in Paris for nearly four decades, Ahmed is the first foreign in-residence artist to live in Rashtrapati Bhavan as a guest of President Pranab Mukherjee, an official statement said on Friday.

The in-residence programme was launched by Mukherjee on December 11, 2013 with the aim of providing writers and artists an opportunity to stay in Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The programme seeks to provide an environment which will inspire creative thinking and rejuvenate artistic impulses.

A solo exhibition of Ahmed’s 12 large-scale works titled “Shanti” will be held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Museum Art gallery in collaboration with Kolkata based Ganges Art gallery from February 18 to 22 for all visitors.

Ahmed, 67, is a celebrated international artist whose works are in collection of the Museum of Bourg-en-Bresse in France, the National Museum of Bulgaria, the Olympic Museum of Lausanne in Switzerland, the Seoul Olympic Museum in South Korea, the National Museum of Taiwan, Bangladesh National Museum and many other galleries and private collections.

He has exhibited around the world and his works include recurring portraits of Gandhiji and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Ahmed considers Tagore and Mother Teresa as his sources of inspiration.

He fought in the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war at the age of 21 as a platoon commander, alongside Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh.